


Erosion

by ReaderRose



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Career Change, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Undertale Neutral Route - Empress Undyne Ending, indoctrination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 13:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14695236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderRose/pseuds/ReaderRose
Summary: It's been three years since the human came through the underground. Sans hasn't been up to much. Papyrus has a new job. Time flies.





	Erosion

**Author's Note:**

> i've had major writer's block and this was the first thing in a while to shake out. Not happy with it but hey, it's something. I'll take all the somethings I can get.

It'd been a long time since the kid passed through. Almost three years, as far as Sans could tell. 

It really didn't feel like years. In some ways it felt like forever, what with all the changes to the Underground, but when he looked at his own life, it really could have been minutes and seconds for how much had happened in the meanwhile. 

Some things changed for Sans. 

He still went to the Door every day, but there was never any kind of reply from the other side of it. All the laughter that used to be there had been silenced. The door was open now, or at least it had been for a while. The seal had been taken away and the hinges loosened up. He could have gone inside, checked it out, but when he knocked, no one said it was okay. He didn't go in people's houses without permission. That was rude. So instead he placed a seal of his own. It wasn't as strong but it would keep most away, if only because no one would be determined enough to try it. He slid a note underneath with instructions, just in case he locked anyone inside. But he didn't; he knew there was no one in there, and he knew that she was dead. But just in case she wasn't. Just in case she was alive.

Just in case. 

Undyne fired him from his jobs. Wasn't that much of a surprise. She was expanding the military and his job wasn't needed as it was anymore. She was freeing up the stations for new recruits and new rookies and he made it pretty clear he wasn't going to officially enlist. 

She didn't fire him herself, though. Not that he expected her to. After all, she was really busy. But what hurt, with a deep, bitter sting he hadn't quite forgiven her for, was that she sent Papyrus over to be the one to do it instead. 

Papyrus hemmed and hawwed and took over a day to get around to bringing it up. Sans knew he was acting weird. He kinda guessed what was up when Papyrus told him to “take the day off.” 

“who are you and what have you done with my brother?” he'd joked, kinda meaning it. And Papyrus gave an awkward smile and said nothing, precursor to a response dying on the wind. 

But eventually he told him he was fired. Papyrus was jockeying for a spot in Undyne's new regime, and he couldn't put the bad news off if he wanted to have a spot at earning an important position. So he broke the news and Sans shrugged and they had a long chat about what it all meant, and by the end they both decided that this was fine, and that was the end of that. 

 

And the months passed. 

 

Papyrus achieved “The Most Important Royal Position,” which Undyne made just for him, seemed like. Something to make Papyrus happy while keeping him away from all the other actually-important jobs he'd applied to. Sans was dully outraged about it. He wanted to go, have a talk, tell her it was bullshit that she wouldn't consider him for something better, that she would give him a job doing nothing instead. But he wasn't a ‘go over there and have a talk’ kinda guy. And he couldn't say he wasn't guilty of that kind of stuff. And Papyrus seemed happy, or at least that's what he said. Every day. “I AM VERY HAPPY!” before running out the door. 

It didn't really matter. Papyrus as captain would have hurt far more. He couldn't imagine Papyrus drawing up battle plans to destroy human lives. Puzzles were one thing, wars were another. 

 

Three years.

 

Time flies when you're doing nothing. In that time Sans didn't get a lot done. The machine was still broken. He still hadn't baked the perfect pie, but he tried sometimes when no one was home to be watching, and he didn't feel like sleeping some more. The old lady gave him the recipe, and it was getting pretty good. But it was missing something, he could tell. Some secret ingredient. It was probably something hooky like ‘love,’ but that was in short supply under Undyne's regime. 

Papyrus still had that job. He still said he was happy. It'd been a while since they had their last big talk. Some days he looked downright exhausted, but he always said he was fine. Work was just hard. Sans still wasn't sure exactly what he did there. 

One day, he came back looking as happy as he claimed to be, all shouts and smiles like he used to be. 

“SANS! I HAVE THE DAY OFF TOMORROW!” he boomed, triumphantly, “MAKE ONE OF YOUR TERRIBLE QUICHES IN CELEBRATION!!!”

It was the first day off he ever had. And it was weird that he was happy about it. It was Papyrus, after all. He lived to work, as awful as that was.

 

But Sans made the quiche as requested, and at the same time Papyrus made his old spaghetti, and they took turns in the kitchen, joking and chatting while each made their ‘signature’ meal. Sans didn't ask the hard questions, or any questions. Papyrus would never answer before he was ready, and Sans wasn't ready to hear the answers. It wasn't that he was dreading it. He had no idea what was up. It was just a lot of work to have an actual conversation and he had a policy to avoid it when he could. 

The pie was bland and the spaghetti was inedible. If Papyrus had worked at it at all in those three years, maybe it wouldn't have been. But it was never about the spaghetti; it was about the guard, so once he was in the Most Important Royal Position, he dropped the cooking hobby like a rock. 

(He dropped all his hobbies like a rock.)

 

Papyrus made his big announcement. “I'M GETTING A PROMOTION!”

“i thought you already had the most important royal position though?”

“I DID! I DO!! AND THIS IS STILL THE MOST IMPORTANT ROYAL POSITION, YOU SEE, BECAUSE I AM IN IT!”

“okay.” A silence swept over them. It was still his turn to talk. “so what's the promotion?”

“I'M GOING TO BE A GENERAL!!!!” he announced, gleeful and exuberant. 

Sans stared.

The Royal Guard didn't have generals… but they used to, way back during the war. They weren't the front line guys, but they were usually the ones in charge. The planners. The leaders. What the hell was Undyne thinking?

“you know what a general does, right?”

A flicker of something crossed Papyrus's face. Once upon a time it would have been something like doubt, coming from him, regarding such a question. But it wasn't doubt.  It wasn't anything that Sans could read or guess at. 

“SANS, OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT A GENERAL IS.” 

Sans could tell that that was true. He gave a smile, but the gears were turning, fruitlessly, and Sans didn't understand. 

“you'd be leading regiments… planning the war effort…”

“YES, SANS. I ALREADY TOLD YOU: I KNOW WHAT A GENERAL DOES.”

“you'd be responsible for taking all those human lives, pap.” Sans never liked to cut to the actual chase like that but… Papyrus couldn't understand. He couldn't be this excited over that. He couldn't. 

“OH.  I… I SEE.” Papyrus frowned. He was quiet. For a moment, Sans thought he had made him understand. “I'M SORRY IF THAT'S… A LITTLE HARD FOR YOU TO HEAR?”

“huh?”

“I KNOW YOU'RE A BIT OF A PACIFIST??? I MEAN, YOU DIDN'T WANT TO ENLIST IN THE GUARD AND… WHEN THE HUMAN CAME YOU LEFT THEM TO ME RATHER THAN FIGHTING THEM YOURSELF…” Papyrus fidgeted. Sans could feel his soul bottoming out as he realized what Papyrus was saying. 

“that's not why i…” he stumbled. “you know you'd be killing them. and the human that was here, your _friend?_ them too…”

Papyrus winched at the word ‘friend,’ but otherwise his expression was nothing but concerned and tired. 

“AFTER ALL THAT HUMAN DID, DON'T YOU THINK THEY WOULD DESERVE IT THE MOST?”

Sans wondered if he lost HP, for how hard his brother's words hit him. 

 

“I'M SORRY I BROUGHT IT UP. BUT THIS IS MY JOB NOW. AND I PLAN TO BE VERY GOOD AT IT.” Papyrus stood up from the table and placed a hand on Sans’s shoulder. “I KNOW YOU COULD NEVER HELP WITH THIS, BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW I LOVE YOU ANYWAY. AND I'LL MAKE SURE THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS, YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BEING ON THE FRONT LINES. OKAY?”

There was nothing else Sans could do but nod. 

“THE QUICHE WAS NEARLY EDIBLE, BY THE WAY! I THINK IT'S MISSING SOMETHING, BUT I KNOW YOU CAN GET IT RIGHT! I SUPPORT YOU!!”

And then he left the room. 

 

Sans was left staring at what was left on the table, trying to process what had happened in the last five minutes; what had happened in the last three years. 

 

He felt like something just dunked him into the freezing river, and only now was he finally awake. Three years was a long time to sleep. 

As the reality he'd missed settled in, he wished he could just go back to sleep… and stay there. 

 


End file.
